Day 3: Las Vegas – George Maloof and his Icelandish A capella Trio

posted on Saturday, January 22nd @ 4 pm | jozimmerman

Early on in our show at Beauty Bar, Julie (our publicist from Better Than Nothin’) pointed out that George Maloof, of the Maloof brothers and owner of the Palms Casino, was right outside. I figured it couldn’t hurt to invite him in.
“Are you George?”
“Yes.”
“Beards of Comedy inside. You can come in free.”
(As if the owner of the Palms would care about a ten dollar cover).

The bouncer interrupted, “Oh, he’s got frequent flier miles here.”

Stupid bouncer, you live here. I only come to Las Vegas once, ever. Let me have my Maloof moment.

George said he was waiting for a “group,” which I took to mean he wasn’t coming in.

I went back inside thinking, “That’s cool I spoke with a Maloof brother,” before realizing, “No, that’s not cool at all.” I barely spoke to him. He didn’t give me money. I didn’t get a picture. Nothing. Fortunately, there would be a Maloof encore.

The Beauty Bar is a standing room only rock club and as the show progressed, the crowd of fifty spiraled toward rowdy. There was a magician/burlesque group up front who were loud and heckle-y. They were Kris Angel fans, and I wish I would have remembered that I randomly have Kris Angel’s number. I could have called him, handed them the phone, and yelled “mind freak! But I didn’t think of it, and they remained unimpressed with our lack of magic.

I went on last, as George Maloof walked in with three sparkling women. He approached the stage:
Maloof: “Can my friends sing?”
Me: “Who are your friends?”
Maloof: “They are an A cappella trio from Iceland.”
Me: “Sounds great.”
Maloof: (hands me one-hundred dollar bill)
Me: (I like rich people)

I introduced “the Charley’s” to a smattering of applause. The performance was awesome, and by “awesome,” I mean here a picture from their website:

I watched side stage, and was thankful that my set was going so well. I snapped some pics to document my new closer:

Afterward, George bought two Beard t-shirts, and asked me to plug the Palms. That’s when I realized we had just picked up a fourth sponsor: George Maloof of the Palms Casino, Sacramento Kings, and various other wealthy things.

Everything I hoped for from that initial encounter happened, and it makes me happy to know that Maloof might wear a shirt with my face on it.

Today is TJ’s birthday and we are headed through the desert to Los Angeles for a show at Meltdowd, with guest Kyle Kinane. Kyle’s CD topped the charts this year, he filmed his Comedy Central presents, and he is an all around comedy beast. So come out, or tell a friend, or send TJ a birthday poke.